Blackhawks tie Cup finals with wild Game 4 overtime win

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DJ Bean
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June 19, 2013 @ 11:33 pm
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The Blackhawks tied the Stanley Cup[1] finals at two games apiece Wednesday night thanks to an overtime game-winner from Brent Seabrook that capped a 6-5 Chicago win. It marked the third game this series that has gone to overtime, the second of which the Blackhawks have won.

Chicago got on the board with a shorthanded goal from Michael Handzus, but the teams went into the first intermission tied at 1-1 thanks to a power-play goal from Rich Peverley[2].

It was the second period when things really opened up, with the teams combining for five goals. The Blackhawks took a two-goal lead on scores from Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, and after Milan Lucic[3] brought the B’s back within one, Marcus Kruger scored less than a minute later. Patrice Bergeron[4] made it 4-3 late in the period on his third power-play goal of the series, which was followed by a frantic final minute of the period in which the Bruins unsuccessfully pushed to tie the game.

The B’s carried that momentum into the third period, with Bergeron quickly knotting the score. Chicago finally broke Boston’s streak of penalties killed at 30 when Patrick Sharp sent a rebound past Tuukka Rask[5], but the Bruins tied it once again thanks to Johnny Boychuk[6]‘s sixth goal of the playoffs. That set up the overtime session.

Game 5 will be played Saturday in Chicago before the series returns to Boston for Game 6, when the Stanley Cup[1] will be in the building for the series’ first elimination game.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR FOR THE BRUINS

— For the first time, a Toews line was able to beat Zdeno Chara[7]. Both Toews and Bryan Bickell were in front of the net on Michal Rozsival‘s shot from the point, which Toews tipped past Rask while Chara was on the ice with Boychuk.

Chara also was left out to dry on Kruger’s goal, as Dennis Seidenberg[8] stepped up and couldn’t get back when the puck went the other way, leading to a two-on-one against Chara on which Kruger buried the rebound of his own shot. Despite getting the primary assist on two of the Bruins’ goals (including Bergeron’s power-play goal), Chara was a minus-2 on the night, as he was on the ice for the power play on which Handzus scored.

— Lucic had a terrible turnover that ultimately led to Sharp’s power-play goal. The Bruins were on the power play for less than 20 seconds before Jagr was called for high-sticking Duncan Keith, and it was during four-on-four play that Lucic gave the puck away to Kane in the B’s zone. David Krejci[9] had no choice but to hook Kane to prevent a Grade A scoring chance. The B’s made it through an abbreviated five-on-three, but Kane buried a rebound in front to give the Blackhawks the lead on Chicago’s first power-play goal of the series.

— That Handzus goal wasn’t Chara’s fault, though. The blame there would go to Tyler Seguin[10], who was exceptionally weak on the puck in letting Brandon Saad strip it from him high in the zone and go the other way to set up the game’s first goal. Seguin obviously has been making positive strides of late (including drawing that very penalty), but this isn’t the time of the season for uninspired play.

— Bickell finally made himself noticeable for his play. His traffic in front contributed to the Toews goal, and he also put the shot on net that led to Kane backhanding the rebound past Rask.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE BRUINS

— Think the book is out on Corey Crawford? At least four of the Bruins’ goals Wednesday were glove side, and 10 of the 12 goals they’ve scored on him this series have been glove side.

— Playing in his 200th career postseason game, Jaromir Jagr had his second multi-point night of the playoffs, so who needs goals? The cycle-happy Jagr showed earlier on in the shift in which Bergeron scored the game-tying goal that he can be all too predictable at times, but his feed from down low to Bergeron in the circle was his latest perfect pass.

— It’s nice to see Peverley contribute outside of just winning faceoffs and killing penalties. Those are both important, but the reemergence of his offense was needed by the B’s. Peverley’s goal doubled his point total to two for this postseason in 19 games, while he was also able to draw a tripping penalty on Keith on the penalty kill following a nice play up the boards by Chris Kelly[11].

— Give Andrew Ference[12] a lot of credit on Peverley’s goal. He did a tremendous job keeping the puck in the zone, and after it bounced off Saad high in the zone, Peverley stepped up and fired it past Crawford.